Posted on 03/24/2002 9:50:27 AM PST by Brian_Baldwin
They say that, in the ancient days of the dawn of man, we lived in caves and beneath the earth, sheltered ourselves in hidden canyons and caverns of rock. Then, about 1848, gold was discovered. It was not the first time. This time, it was the new frontier of America. Beaver pelts are nice, and the French were hunting pelts up North. But in those days, on the way to the beaver dams, there was gold in the rivers, streams and creeks nearby, and in the mountains, and in the deserts, and gold was, well, just laying on the ground - you could pick it up with a pitchfork, you might say. Can't figure how the Mexicans were walking on it and didn't see it, but as soon as some white guys panned some color you had everybody leaving God's Forty Acres and on to Pikes Peak.
California is called the "Golden State", and there is a bridge in the San Francisco Bay Area called the "Golden Gate Bridge". Gold is often associated with California and other regions of the Western United States, and the reason is that California and these areas have a long history associated with gold and silver and other minerals, including strategic minerals, that continues today. California today is run lock, stock and barrel by the Democrats pretty much, and those folks hate miners and the mining industry - sort of strange if you think about how the gold rush played such an important role in the development of California. The politicians there in California like to regulate everything, and they are going to be regulating what you can eat next. Instead of gold fever they got what you call regulation fever. These politicians, they have a lot of power and can regulate you out of your home and into a cave. But time has a way of changing everything, and don't worry, it won't be very long before California won't be run by these liberal Democrats, anymore. It will be run by Mexico. So you see, this is all part of Bush's plan to throw the Democrats out of power in California. It's part of the amnesty and Hispanic vote "strategery". And then the Mexicans have California again, and all the gold in them hills. You think there isn't any gold left, but I can tell you there is a lot more gold in those hills then was ever taken out, and a lot of other minerals which have "strategery" value as well.
In the mid-1800's, before people actually lived there in any numbers, San Francisco had, believe it or not, a few libraries, like the Architecture Institute. And, even in those days, you had to check out the book, which had a checkout card, and the card was stamped with a date, just like it's still done in some libraries today. And for some reason, in 1849, no one was checking out any books. I guess because they were all leaving town and heading for Dry Diggin's or the rivers of the Sierras.
And not soon after that, they started coming from back East, too.
Gold is rare, but really, no one knows why it is valuable. In China, jade is more valuable than gold. I guess it all comes down to culture. The bounty of the earth holds many ores and strategic minerals of great value. There are a lot of folks in the world who put value on these thing, though no one is really sure why. But, sometimes it's what you can do with the stuff. Like, gold can be used in industry, for example. And lanthanide, well that's a militarily strategery mineral. Maybe, in some ways, exactly why something is valuable is complex. Maybe it provides something in addition to monetary value. Maybe it also provides protection. We are hearing that we Americans need more protection of late. Because of terrorism, for example.
But like I said, what you value, well it all comes down to culture. For example, what do the Palestinians value? Well, what they value is to drown all the Jews in the ocean, and burn Jewish children in an oven. CNN tells us that what they value is a Palestinian State. I can tell you, they would sell their Palestinian State to hell if it meant in return that all the Jews would be gassed. What you value, is all part of culture.
Like take the Bush Administration, for example. What's valuable to the powers that be? Rare minerals? Maybe. But, just the other day Bush told us - in fact told the entire world - that we have to fight world terrorism to "protect free trade". I thought we were fighting terrorism to protect Americans. Another interesting thing is, I guess we are the only ones who are allowed to fight world terrorism, which we now understand we are doing so to protect free trade. For example, if Israel fights world terrorism, the Bush Administration says this is "disturbing". So, we have the privileged to be the only ones to fight this fight on behalf of free trade. One of our important partners in free trade is China, in fact they get what is called "MFN" every time it's put up to vote, no matter who is in power. Sometimes I think whoever is in power, they are sort of the same folks maybe, because they all pretty much do the same thing. And free trade is pretty important to these folks, in fact so important that now we are going to fight terrorism to protect it. But, let me get back to the whole prospecting thing, because I sort of delved off the subject a little.
As the years went by after 1848, the big mining companies came, and countless men returned to the caves, and eventually into shafts, beneath the earth. The mining companies also started to use and abuse the men - they started to work them extra hours, and men lost their jobs when the air compressor drills came (which drilled the holes that dynamite sticks were wedged into), and with the drills came silicosis disease of the lung, and after years of this I guess labor-management issues started, and some miners even blew up entire towns along with the mining company boilers with like 6,000 pounds of dynamite. And, you may not know this, but communism as a movement was also part of the Americana of the West and it wasn't just a Karl Marx-German-French-Russian thing, no sir. I know some folks tell us that communism started after generations of Russian babies were wrapped too tight in blankets, but I can tell you that some Cornish took a whole communist shindig from America back to Europe (reverse directional history), a real communist movement that started with the miners in the Western States. There was a guy named Soapy Smith. He didn't start communism, either. But a couple of his side-kicks, . . . ok . . . never mind.
The 1800's wasn't the first time that cave man returned to his home, a home familiar somewhere deep in his soul. Religion lived with man in the caves, in the ancient days, and he painted images of animals on the cave walls. For here, in the deepest part of the caves, the hunt was depicted. There is a religious story acute in our fables, and do you remember Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs? The Seven Dwarfs, yes sir, they were miners. Man was just a dwarf then, hundreds (thousands ?) of years ago, but he loved the mine as much as they loved Snow White. And pretty soon, they are going to ban the story of Snow White from all of our school libraries - too politically incorrect. Because the dwarfs being miners, well you can't depict a miner in any sort of benign light. We all know, miners are evil white males who should be pushed from California by the peoples of color into the Pacific ocean just like the Palestinian peoples of color want to push the Jews into the sea.
The mines. The question regarding the mines is, historically, how can we talk about the mines in context of women's liberation? What can we do to maybe get the women to help the peoples of color to push all the white males into the Pacific ocean?
Because, you know - prospecting, the hunt for the bounty of earth, it sort of seems to me that it is the yen of men and not so much women. Women, they like to wear the gold, the diamonds, the colored rocks. Women wear it. Men find it. It is the seeking, the search, the quest, and the hunt. And without that, what would it be? Too easy? And, thus, have no meaning?
Actually, I should make an amend. Men find it, and men like to wear it just like the women I suppose. I mean, I don't mind a gold Rolex watch. No sir. And anyway, there's a lot of "strong women" who can find that gold as sure as any man. Like Barbara Boxer, a transplant from New York who now lives in California, for example. You can read all about this strong woman in the school books in the California elementary school system along with the biographies of great Americans like Malcolm X. California has a lot of strong women, like Diane Feinstein for example.
Speaking of Diane Feinstein and miners, did you know that Feinstein helped the former Secretary of Interior Bruce Babbit to impose draconian measures to basically shutdown some miners in California who were taking out from the earth some strategery mineral that the only other place you could get it was from companies in China, companies whose husband of Diane Feinstein has a major holding in? Her husband is a big supporter of free trade, and she's a politician from California. In fact, she's a Senator from California, and she and her husband like free trade, especially with China. She's a strong women, and she's going to make sure us strong men all fight world terrorism for the strategery objective of free trade. But, I'm delving off the subject, again.
And in the days of modern man, Napoleon came, and our modern age dawned, and during the years of gold and silver and El Dorado, men went down into the earth, where it was one hundred and ten degrees Fahrenheit and men died.
The hunt. That's what it was. Only in this case, they weren't hunting Woolly Mammoth. Men went there, into those holes, into The Comstock Lode. A little wooden elevator, packed with men, dropped them down into the shafts, deep. And, all over the West, men returned to the caves, and painted on the walls of caves with candles - "Kilroy was here".
In No. 4, Winter Quarters Mine, Scofield, Utah, May 1st, May Day 1900, the black powder exploded, and the blast shot through from No. 4 to No. 1, and filled it with suffocating gas. Within four minutes over 200 men died. There were no women in No. 4. Did the gold rush die in 1900?
No, my friend. And, I cannot say for sure, how to explain why, but there was something of a reminiscence there, in those holes of darkness of El Dorado. A darkness of epic proportions. But you can't even compare the hard life of those miners going down into those dark holes with the hard life of their women washing the clothes. Basically, those men lived the high life in those deep shafts while their oppressed women had to clean the babes and cook and stuff. The men were free and the women were slaves. And then, Barbara Boxer freed them when she got that bastard Bob Packwood. The Clinton Administration did a lot for women as well.
And, when you think of our forefathers, when they were primitive men, and went into the caves, and painted animals on the walls of rock, and found religion there, and then, you think of those men, of The (with a capital "T") Comstock Lode, the days when you lived in a world when your entire day was hundreds of feet below daylight, you would find it hard to imagine man finding religion there. I suppose, at Cripple Creek, Colorado, in 1890 when Dick Roelofs cut his way through hard rock to the cavity of that strange geode, which they called the vug, and stepped into that little cavern, and held up his miners lantern, and there, 20 feet long, and 15 feet wide, and 40 feet high, he looked from the darkness at a wonderland, where the walls blazed with millions of gold crystals and 24-carat flakes as big as the head on your lizard, and pure gold boulders littering the floor amid piles of pure white spun glass, I guess he sort of found religion at that moment. Placer, as in placer gold, is a word, it means contented. It is something that is hard to explain, because it isn't exactly that, either. I guess it sort of means the same thing as nirvana, or something like "I guess this isn't Kansas anymore". The vug was stripped in four weeks, and $1,200,000 dollars was taken out in those four weeks. And I think gold was something like $10 dollars or $14 dollars an ounce in those days. Today, I think it's worth something like over $300 dollars an ounce, I don't know. Men delved into that earth. And man went into the caves.
And it wasn't, and will not, be the last time. Afghanistan. Osama bin Laden. In Afghanistan, there are rubies in those mountains, and corn flower blue sapphires down in the shafts of those caves. I can tell you, there is gold there as well. In the caves. But that isn't why Osama bin Laden is there. Cavemen. I know that we are told, one day we will live in the stars. And no doubt, it will be true. Gold shines. And the universe shines. The universe will shine, my friend, and man will go across the universe. And I can tell you, when gold is found there, we will be there even faster. I can also tell you, that one day we will again live in the caves. It may come sooner than you think.
There are many places in the world, I know some of these places - and, I can take you back in time, in a time machine, and walk you through the streets of places from Calcutta, India, to Rome, to rugged places and desert lands and show you something, and yes it isn't always romantic. Dredging the mountains for ore can level an entire mountain short order. Dredging became so bad that at one point, the slit and mud threatened to effect shipping in the San Francisco Bay and turned it red like blood. Standing in the cold waters of a mountain stream with a pan in your hand killed many men in the 1800's. And Gold Fever wasn't the only fever - T.B. and pandemic fever killed many men. So, the Gold Rush wasn't all adventure, there are things I can show you and if you like, I can take you to places, before this time. But don't get me wrong - adventure was, and is, there. These men loved the wild west, loved the country, and I think they saved that country. That's right. Because, we are all told about the Indian and Mother Earth that the Indian worshipped. But I think that, if 1848 didn't happen, and the tribes were left alone to cultivate the land, I think there wouldn't be 40 acres of land left unpolluted today. That's my humble opinion. You don't believe me? Believe it.
The liberals hate us, hate people like me who believe in the traditions of our forefathers, folks like me who maybe want to head for the hills and pan a little gold. You know, I hardly ever see any liberals in those mountains. Maybe they are afraid of the mountain lions, or something. They sure hate those old 49ers. But it's funny if you think about it. Because, think about the young men and women of that day, the day's of the gold rush. Were they so much different from rebel and adventurous generations before or after?
Different generations of young men and women have their own generational qualities, and at the time of this gold discovery, many young American men and women were typical of the way they expressed their own individuality at that time, which was to be adventurous. Even before that gold-strike, starting with the generation gap of the 1820's, many young men and women took up the theme of those days, to simply, and literally, to walk away from farming tobacco or cotton, to leave the small home business whether it is blacksmith, or flour store, fed store, hardware, and take risks to adventure westward or up to Canada. It might be to map the regions, to paint the landscapes, to write books, to find wealth in furs, or even early examples of environmentalists. But mostly, it was all about adventure.
There were many tales written at the time that encouraged such adventure, some true tales, some not so true. And these young men and women had their own, different kind of popular music. By the time of the gold rush of 1849, which took place soon after the find at Sutter's Mill of 1848, many of the songs and the music of this generation sang of the themes of adventure that surrounded gold and the lifestyle of the gold prospectors and the wild life they led. Songs such as "Hairbrained", "Sunrise in a Bottle", "Magic Lantern Country", and others.
Countless thousands of such young men and women fled their homes and families to come to California to seek the golden adventure. But the adventure itself is older than 1849. There were fabulous gold discoveries by the Spanish, and others such as the Portuguese. And in the years prior to the gold strike of 1848, there were also earlier discoveries in the late 1700's and early 1800's, but sometimes these were kept secret. Sometimes, primitive men would bring gold nuggets into a camp, and no one would know where this gold was coming from beyond vague references to caverns of streams that run underground. And during the great gold rush, there were many, many such gold strikes of which the location of the treasure was lost because those who found it died shortly after due to disease, bad-luck, or at times were murdered.
In those days, they didn't know about lanthanide, or even care. Actually, that's not exactly correct - them miners in the old days weren't as dumb as some folks make out. Back in 1879 they knew pretty much what was in those rocks, including that lanthanide stuff. Today, that stuff and the byproducts made from it is used in high-tech gadgets used by the military. Red color television. Super magnets used in special electric motors that reduce the weight of the motor by 50%. In replacing platinum catalysts for refining oil, and in computer parts. Did you know that the world's largest lanthanide mine in the Mojave Desert between Barstow, California, and Las Vegas, Nevada, was regulated out of business by Bush Administration federal-Lee's? Go check with the National Association of Mining Districts to get the dope on the story. With the close of the Mountain Pass Mine, the People's Republic of China becomes the principle source of this strategery mineral. But the thing that is important is that we got free trade with China, so don't worry.
There's some nut named Gene Dewey who says the element lanthium can be used to increase the energy efficiency of lighting by 50% and that if America were converted to this technology that half of all energy consumed in lighting could be saved. This nut could of got in the way of the "greens" agenda to close down lanthium production in the United States. Thank God the "greens" won, and now China will use this strategery mineral properly for the cause of socialism and free trade.
SWAT teams of Federal-Lees seized the company computers and records at gunpoint. They held the employees incommunicdo under armed guard, and denied them access to the company attorneys who were held outside at the main gate. They also fined the mine $1 million dollars for a dead tortoise that was found on the property. However, an autopsy of the tortoise failed to find any wrongdoing on the part of the mine, but that's not the point. This is all part of the war on terrorism, whose objective as we now learn from the President is to protect free trade. Part of free trade is for us all to give a lot more money to third world dictators. And, we should all learn to speak Mexican. Maybe, if we can as good Americans can go out and pan some color, we can give these third world countries our gold. Gold can still be found in California. There are treasures of wealth in gold yet to be discovered. Let no one say that there is no longer gold in California, because gold continues to be found by prospectors who continue in the tradition of adventure that begun with the gold strike of 1848. And, there are many true stories of such treasures in gold that were found, but their location lost soon after.
Treasures that await those, anyone, who might find them again today in West and up North. Treasure that in today's value would be worth more than the biggest payouts of the California Lottery, and many smaller fortunes worth hundreds of thousands of dollars or several million.
Typical of such fortunes, the finds were made in rugged, remote regions. Many, many of these findings were in Valleys of Death, such as Death Valley or the Colorado Desert region of California. They are called the Valley of Death, because of the extreme hot and cold climate of this desert region, and a reference from the Bible. Even today, the areas of gold in any one of these Valley's of Death are remote, but adventurers continue to go there. But don’t worry, the greens will stop them and pretty soon no one will be able to go there ever again. No one.
But, it's hard to stop 'em. The thing is, we shouldn't put a fence up along our border with Mexico, but we better damn well put a fence around all those wilderness places. Because we don't want folks going there, looking for the Lost Pegleg Mine, for example.
Many are skilled historians who know how to research these true stories, to find facts and clues. Many, many are skilled geologists who understand the geology of the earth, and know of the true stories and how to use science to find clues. Each year, however, a few of these people become lost, just as the young men and women of the 1800's and early 1900's did. Search parties are sent out to locate them. Some are found, but some are never found again, not even their bones. The greens want to put a fence up to protect these people from themselves.
There are harsh conditions, and even today there are wild men there, native Americans roam about as well on their own adventures. There are hidden secrets that some do not want others to find.
There is gold in the hills. Gold is where you find it. And, there's lost gold - gold once found, now lost. Today, there are modern methods, better maps, metal detectors, the science of geology, jeeps and other vehicles. But most often, it requires adventure, and often a burro or donkey because even jeeps cannot go there. And you carry what the adventurers of the 1800's did, a shovel and pick, and a compass.
Somewhere in the rugged Colorado Desert of southern California, there is a small hill littered with thousands of black stones. Let me take you back there, to a time past. I want to show you something.
See that guy? He's Thomas L. Smith, alias "Pegleg Smith", and his friend Maurice LeDoux. It's hot, and the reason is, were now with them on a trip in the Colorado desert. Now they are lost in the desert due to a sand storm.
It's night time now. You don't know where you are. You don't even know what year it is. Pegleg wants to find out how to get out of this desert. See, he's looking up at the stars, and he starts to walk. He climbed a hill to view the area. He noticed that he was standing on some kind of pebbles, unusual in color. Thrown all about, as if by an explosion, were littered black stones, about the size of a grape, some the size of a walnut. But, as a seasoned explorer, hunter, trapper and scout, and an associate of Kit Carson, Thomas knew that whatever happened at this site, it happened a long, long time ago, long before man likely ever existed.
He picked up some of the grape size stones returned to camp. He took out the rocks that he had found and showed it to his friend. They were heavier than normal stones of such size. They both thought it was a different kind of a mineral. Breaking the stones, they found inside the core of each stone a pea of what Thomas thought was metal. The year was 1829, twenty years before the gold rush of 1849.
About two weeks later, you and Smith and his friend straggle into a small settlement on the outskirts of Los Angeles. Los Angeles was a different place back then. Do you recognize it? While camping there, Pegled takes one of the stones out shows it to one of the settlers of Los Angeles. The farmer laughed Pegleg told the hayseed that he thought it was copper. The farmer may have been a hayseed, but he wasn't dumb, and he was laughing, because he said it wasn't copper. It was rich gold ore. Smith did not believe what the settlers told him. And, while the settlers had heard of some gold finds, they had never seen gold found in such a stone. Generally, gold is found in veins of quartz.
Thomas wasn't interested in gold, however. Thomas longed to return to the remote frontiers to search for beaver pelts, which were still in demand at that time. He put the stones away.
It's years later now. He takes some of the stones to a geologist. He finds out the stones are manganese, a black mineral. You can break off the crust. Inside each manganese crust, were gold pellets of pure gold. While he had a man's entire years salary in the stones he collected, it was only years later he found that gold had such value. And, when gold was discovered at Sutters mill and the California rush of 1849, Smith was surprised to find out the incredible fortunes that were in a matter of few days when it comes to gold. Yes sir, gold have value.
Experts knew Thomas had a rich find. Now it's soon after the strike of 1848. He's PegLeg Smith, and your with him and a small search party that's gone searching for the gold. Pegleg thought he knew where to return to the low-knoll in the Colorado Desert to find the strange stones which had gold cores. After many weeks of searching, however, Smith gave up and went to search for his old companion LeDoux, only to find that his friend had died just earlier in San Diego. Smith still didn't give up the hope for the gold and his interest in his strange find. He again made another search into the region, in 1854, and again in 1860. The records show the search parties looked this region of the desert in the exact areas between Mexicali and Yuma, on the north side towards the Chocolate Mountain. But he couldn't find gold the locate of these stones. After a few years he died in San Francisco in 1866.
It's now 1867. You see that guy on the donkey? A prospector returns from the east-west trail that connected Yuma with San Diego. He returns with black stones in his burro pack. Now you're In Yuma, and the same guy has brought them in for assay. Inside the manganese, were pellets of pure gold. It was duly recorded, the government was informed months later. He walked out with tens of thousands of dollars. The gold made coins for the United States. They tried to find the prospector, and the government found him. Dead. He had died of fever.
It's now 1908. Two Indians walk into the settlement of Brawley. You're there. They want to buy "white man" goods, leathers, iron tools, weapons, horses, and other supplies. They did not know how to pay for the items. Instead they put on the counter a handful of gold nuggets. On each nugget were bits of black manganese crust. The greedy vendors take the gold, and the Indians leave.
They went towards the desert, and were never seen again. Perhaps they went into Mexico. The government found out the gold, that it was the same manganese crusted find as before.
Superstition Mountain. Panamint. Mormon Silver Ledge. Goler Wash. Warner Mountains. Hobo Camp. The Lost Cement Mine. Avawatz Mountians. Pothole. There is lost gold there, and these are not the stories of fiction. There are other minerals of great value, gem stones, colored rocks. In some cases, the government knows the likely locations, but according to documents, and in the case of gold, the United States waits for some future time. Some future need, of national need. Maybe. There is gold and silver in California, Idaho, Colorado, Nevada, Alaska. Much more than what has already been found. We have a saying - Gold is Where You Find It. But one day - could that be today? - you will only be allowed to look in your own backyard. If you are allowed to have a backyard. Or maybe you will be looking in your cave that you will be living in. We are all cavemen.
Your post does nothing to dispel that notion. You from DU?
Thanks for the post.
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